Quicksilver Snowboard Camp

It's almost season end so we decided to make the most of a good opportunity to improve our already mad skills, and attend a two day Freeride/ Freestyle Snowboard Camp.

The conditions for Camp Day 1 were pretty rough. Visibility was bad and the snow which had melted the day before had frozen solid over night. The few cms of fresh snow did nothing to conceal the crud beneath. Leigh rented a smaller/ softer park board for the camp and had to get used to it's handling in the challenging conditions.

We had four in our group and Ross our instructor took us straight into the Park. After some warm up ollies off the park rollers we headed to the kickers. We did some small hits first to practise our technique and then Ross took us off to the bigger kickers.

I think we have only ever hit the medium kickers a couple of times on powder days when you're not so fussed about hurting yourself. They're pretty scary. Ross told us to match his speed to make sure we cleared the knuckle (flat section of the jump) just after you leave the lip. You have to clear the knuckle before you make to the transition which is the downward landing. This is also scary.. The transition, apart from being solid ice sits at about 90 degrees. We learnt later in the day that one of the guys in the other group broke his shoulder after landing on the knuckle section on one of the M jumps in the park.


One guy in our group (Dennis) was actually screaming from a combination of fear and exhilaration as he went over for the first time. Gareth didn't make an attempt but Leigh and I were up for it. Leigh had trouble with the new board, he couldn't line it up very well due to it's high degree of flex. I tried swapping boards with him later in the day and oh boy was it a piece of crap.

So we hit these for most of the day and our goal was to hit all three kickers in a row. This was a pretty ambitious goal. Once you stuffed your heart back down your throat after landing the first jump, you had about 2 seconds to man up for the next jump. We really learnt that it's all about commitment. Before you drop in you have to have already decided to go hard or you're likely to freak out as soon as you approach and the last thing you want is to start flapping in the air off a 20 ft jump. I had one fall after getting some massive air off the second kicker. I landed the jump but then caught and edge on the transition and slid down feet first jarring my ankles and grazing my chin. Battle scar of sorts that I'm pretty proud of.

This is some random person in the photo (we didn't have a camera) but I just wanted to show you the actual Terrain Park we were hitting.

Day two and Leigh has come down with a really bad fever. He was in a cold sweat and state of delirium so I had to go it alone. We did some fantastic steeps off the Blackcomb glacier in the morning and once we had warmed up we hit the Blackcomb terrain garden. The kickers and features are smaller in there and we were all pretty traumatised after our adventures in the Whistler Park yesterday. Nailed the small features, confidence - check. Time for the big kids park.

Now it was time to attempt some Large sized features like the hips. The hip in the picture is actually pretty small. The ones we hit were about 4m tall. The idea is to ride straight up the front, get some hang time, and then change your rotation and land down the side. Takes some practise to get your rotation right. These aren't nearly as terrifying as the big jumps but they require you to think more about your landing and mid air rotations.


I hit some more Medium jumps, none of the guys were keen to try them again. Yeah!!

At lunch we sat and had lunch on the same table as snowboarding legend JP Walker who I used to watch in snowboarding DVD's when I first started riding. He was a really cool guy so this kind of made my day.

After lunch Gareth went home so it was just Dennis, Ross and myself. We were exhausted from riding so hard so we did some Boarder cross racing and focused some more on our spins and 180's as we rode around Blackcomb in the sun pretty much hitting every bump we came across.

All in all it was such a great experience. We felt what it was like to be pushed completely out of our comfort zone. I have a new appreciation for guys and girls who nail it because they work so hard. The mind really has alot to do with it at this level. I think I have a new perspective of my own capabilities too.

Kat